Cobn-huskeb



A. GRAHAM.

Corn VH usken Patented 06u. 20, 1857.'

N. Pneus, Mlm' www DJ;

UNITED STATES' PATENT OFFICE.

ALDEN GRAHAM, OF ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

CORN-HUSKER.

I Specification of I ietters Patent No.

To aZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, ALDEN GRAHAM, o f Roxbury, in the county of Norfolkand State of h/Iassachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Implementor Device for Husking` Corn; and I do hereby declare that the followingis a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being hadto the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which-Figure l, is a front view of my improvement. Fig. 2, is a side View ofditto. Fig. 3, is a detached front view of the knife, stripping fork,and slitting arm. Fig. 4 is also a front view of ditto, the device fordischarging the butt from the fork being also shown, the part-s being ina dierent position from that shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 5, is a detached viewof the device by which the nubbin or butt is discharged from the fork.Fig. 6, is a horizontal section of my improvement taken in the line (w),Fig. 1.

Similar letters of reference indicate coru responding parts in theseveral figures.

My .invention consists in the employment or use of a verticalreciprocating knife, stripping fork and slitting arm or cutter inconnection with a grooved bed so arranged and operating that the buttsare detached from the ears and the husks stripped therefrom, the buttsand husks being discharged from the implement in o-ne direction and theears in the opposite direction.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct myinvent-ion I will proceed to describe it.

A4 represents a vertical post which is secured to a suitable base B',and (a) (a) are guides attached to said post between which a plate (b)is fitted and allowed to slide freely up and down, the lower end of saidplate being connected by a link (c) with a treadle B, which is pivotedto the base and has a spring ((Z) underneath it, said spring keeping thetreadle, when not otherwise acted upon, in an upward position, as shownclearly in Fig. 2. The upper end of the plate (Zi) is bent or curvedforming what is technically termed a goose-neck,7 and a knife C oftriangular shape is attached to the end of the 'oose neck, the cuttingedge (e) of the knife being at its lowest point, the edges (f) beingsomewhat curved and blunt, their surfaces being at right angles with thefront and back sides of the knife, and not intended to act as cuttingsurfaces 18,447, dated October 20, 1857.

but to serve the office of a wedge as hereinafter shown.

D, E, are two shafts the journals of which are fitted in opposite endsof plates or bars (g) (g) attached to or connected with the post in anyproper manner. Around each shaft D, E, a spiral spring (L) is Vplacedand an arm (2') is attached to the shaft D, and an arm is attached tothe shaft E. The upper end of the arm is curved a little outward or tothe left and is provided with a cutting edge as shown at and the upperend of the arm (j) has a fork (Z) formed on it. The springs have atendency to keep the outer ends of the arms inward or toward each otherso that the fork (Z) and cutter (70) will, when not otherwise actedupon, be in contact as shown in Fig. l.

F, is a horizontal bed which is attached to the post A a short distanceabove the bars (g) (g). The bed F is slotted longitudinally and theupper ends of the arms that is, the cutter (Z0) and fork (Z) passthrough the slot in the bed. The back end of the shaft E has apart-pinion (m) upon it, and (n) is a rack which is attached to thetreadle B, said rack working through a guide loop (o) attached to theback side of the post A. The rack (n) is composed of a few teeth onlyformed in a bar and this bar is kept in contact with the periphery ofthe part pinion by means of a spring as shown more particularly in Figs.4 and 5.

The operation is as follows The ears in the husk are laid one at a timeon t-he bed F the base of the ear, that is, the point of junction of theear and butt, being directly underneath the cutting edge (e) of knife C,see Figs. 1, 3 and 4, in which (a) is the butt, and (Zi) the ear, shownin red. The ear being thus placed on the bed, the knife C, is forceddown by depressing the treadle B with the foot andthe edge (e) of theknife G will enter the butt at its junction with the ear and will splitor fracture the butt, so as to detach it from the ear. This is animportant feature in the operation. It must be understood the knife C,does not perform the office of a knife only, for the cutting edge (e)does not cut the butt from the ear by cutting alone, for the edge(e) isnot sufficiently broad to eifect this, see Fig. 2, in which it will beseen that the diameter of the butt is considerably greater than thewidt-hof the cutting edge (e). The cutting edge (e) therefore enters thebutt and in consequence of the triangular shape of the knife the buttwill be fractured transversely and detached from the ear, the butt beingpartially cut and partially fractured in being detached from the ear, itbeing understood that the butt owing to natural causes will not readilysplit longitudinally but will rather break or fracture transversely whenacted upon by a wedge. The knife C as it detaches the butt from the earalso forces it upon the fork (Z) and as the knife C descends its edgesforce the two arms (i) (j) apart, the fork (Z) causing the butt withhusk (0) attached outward to one side of the machine and the ear beingforced outward at the opposite side, the cutter (7c) slitting the huskson the ear so that they may be readily drawn from it by the fork (Z).The husks of Indian corn it will be understood, are not attached firmlyto the ear they merely encompass'it, the husks are attached to the but-tand hence the necessity of having the butts broken from the ear asdescribed-if they were cut oif by the cutting edge (e) the fork (Z)could not strip the husks from the ear forv they would be severed fromthe butts and would be forced from the bed F upon the ears. When the twoarms (Z) (j) are fully distended by the knife C, the latter being fullydepressed, the ear stripped of its husk will fall oif the bed F, seeFig. 4, and as the foot beingI taken off the treadle B, t-he treadlewill rise by the action of the spring (CZ) and the arm (i) will returnto its original position by the force of the spring (h) on its shaft D.Not so however the arm for this as the treadle B rises is still furtheracted upon by the rack (n) and part pinion (m) which throw the armfarther outward as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. l, and at thispoint the smooth portion of the rack bar will come in contact with thepart pinion (m) and the arm being thereby relieved of said pinion andrack, the spring (72.) of its shaft E throws the arm back to itsoriginal position. By this means the arm (j) is moved through a moreextended space than the arm (z') and a sudden jerk, or illip is givenit, by said means, so as to throw the butts and husks off the forkHaving thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

The vertical reciprocating knife C, in combination with the slittingcutter (7c) stripping fork (Z) and slotted bed F, arranged and operatedsubstantially as and for the purpose set forth.

ALDEN GRAHAM.

Zitnessesz .TosHUA LEAM, JAMES BALL.

